As an astronomer, I am sometimes asked what effects the Curse had upon the
cosmos beyond earth. How did Adam’s fall into sin affect stars, galaxies, and
planets, for example? This question seemed straightforward, but as I looked
closer, I found that it was more complicated than it first appeared.

When Adam rebelled against God by eating the forbidden fruit, God placed a
curse on the world. No longer was the cosmos the perfect creation that God Himself
had declared “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

The world had changed. But in what ways? Can the effects of Adam’s sin be observed,
for example, in a telescope? Did the laws of nature change when God cursed the
earth? What can we discover from the Scriptures?

Known Effects of the Fall

Let’s begin by discussing what the Bible clearly states about the Curse.1
The Curse meant that humans and animals would now suffer pain, disease, and
eventually death.2 Work would be difficult and sometimes
painful as thorns and thistles now compete for the ground. Clearly, the earth,
the plants, and all living creatures were changed as a result of the Curse.

But what about the universe beyond earth? Scripture is clear that all creation
was touched by the Curse and now suffers a “bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:20–22).
But what does this mean in particular?

Some Christians have suggested that exploding stars (supernovae) and craters
on other planets are a result of the Curse. Others have postulated that the
laws of nature were changed. Specifically, some have suggested that the second
law of thermodynamics began at the Curse. What can we learn from Scripture about
the cosmic aspects of the Curse?

Probing the Astronomical Consequences

This is the remnant of a supernova, a star that has exploded in the Crab Nebula. Are these exploding stars a result of the Curse? NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Gehrz (University of Minnesota)

Let’s consider craters and supernovae first. It would be hard to establish
from the Scriptures alone that they are results of the Curse. The Bible does
not mention these things by name, and so one could only make an indirect argument
that such signs of catastrophe do not comport with a world that is “very good.”

But any such argument would be subjective; it would be based on an arbitrary
personal assessment of what is to be considered “good” or “bad” rather than
what the Bible objectively teaches. Indeed, anyone who has seen a supernova
or the craters on the moon through a telescope is awestruck by their astonishing
beauty.

The Bible does indicate that certain things are clearly bad: things
that affect humans and animals in a negative way (sickness and death, for example),
either directly or indirectly. So sickness and death must be a result of the
Curse. Recall that Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead. God cares about
the animals, too (Luke 12:6; Proverbs 12:10; Exodus 20:10; Deuteronomy 25:4),
so they would not have suffered or died in God’s original very good world.

So what about craters and supernovae? Are such things really “bad”? Craters
on other worlds and distant supernovae do not have any substantial negative
impact on human beings, and so it would be hard to argue that they must be a
result of the Curse, though of course they could be. Could a perfect universe
have craters and exploding stars? Potentially, yes.

Yet the specific ways in which the Curse touched the lifeless celestial realm
will always retain an element of mystery.

The Law of Decay

Some people have also argued that the second law of thermodynamics began at
the Curse. In its original form, this law deals with the transfer of thermal
energy (heat). According to the second law of thermodynamics, energy will tend
to move from hotter objects to cooler objects. This is a type of “decay,” and
the reverse never happens spontaneously. For example, if we put an ice cube
in a cup of hot coffee, the thermal energy will always go from the hotter liquid
to the much colder ice cube. This will heat the ice cube, causing it to melt,
eventually resulting in lukewarm coffee.

As another example, solar energy travels from the sun to the earth because
the sun is much hotter than the earth. Notice that according to Genesis 1:14–18,
the sun (the “greater light”) was designed to give light upon the earth at its
creation. Since this happens as a result of the second law, it is clear biblically
that the second law of thermodynamics was in operation during the Creation Week.
It operated before the Curse, and thus, is not a result of the Curse.

All living creatures make use of the second law; we could not survive without
it. Even the digestion of food makes use of the second law.

The decay of energy is not a bad thing. Rather, it is an important aspect of
creation and a requirement for life.

The Decay of the Cosmos

Although the second law is not intrinsically bad, one difficulty remains. As
a result of the second law of thermodynamics, the universe is “running down”
as its usable energy decays to a useless form. Consequently, the universe cannot
last forever. It must eventually run down completely (Psalm 102:25–26).

Surely the original universe would not have been this way; after all, Adam
and Eve potentially could have lived forever had they not sinned. How do we
reconcile this with the necessity of the second law?

A Hint from the Exodus

Rather than the second law of
thermodynamics beginning at the Fall,
it seems more likely that its restorative
counterpart ceased at the Fall.

The exodus of the Israelites may provide a partial answer. When the Israelites
wandered in the wilderness, God provided for them in a very special way. Not
only did God supply food (Exodus 16:35), but He also preserved their clothing
and prevented their feet from swelling (Deuteronomy 29:5; Nehemiah 9:21). Since
clothing normally wears out with time, it would seem that God was acting in
a restoring capacity so that there was no net decay of the material.

It could be that God acted in a similar way with the entire universe before
the Fall of man. Although the decay of energy is necessary for life, it could
be that God constantly provided a restorative process, whereby the decaying
energy was eventually recycled back into a usable form.3

So, although the second law was in full effect, another compensating restorative
process may have prevented any net decay of the universe. This would allow the
universe and life on earth to exist forever, while heat and energy would still
behave as they do today (for the most part).

So, rather than the second law of thermodynamics beginning at the Fall, it
seems more likely that its restorative counterpart ceased at the Fall.4
God no longer sustains the universe in an eternal, regenerating way.

This is only one possible explanation, of course. The human mind is not the
limit of possibility; God is. So we trust that God is capable of creating and
sustaining a perfect world by His wisdom. We can rest in God’s promise that
He will restore paradise (Acts 3:21) and that He will perfectly sustain the
new heavens and new earth forever (Revelation 21–22).

Answers Magazine

July – September 2009

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Footnotes

We should remember that the immediate effect of Adam’s sin was spiritual.
Sin ruined the perfect communion that humans once enjoyed with their Creator.
This is why all people now need a Savior. Nonetheless, to give us a small glimpse
of what life would be like apart from God’s sustaining presence, God cursed
the physical universe as a result of Adam’s disobedience.

That human beings
would suffer physical death as a result of Adam’s sin is very clear from verses
such as Genesis 3:17–19, Genesis 2:17, Romans 5:12, and 1 Corinthians 15:21–22.
It is clear that death of the living (nephesh) animals was also instituted as
a result of Adam’s sin, since God killed an animal (or animals) to provide skins
of clothing for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). Since God cares for animals (Matthew
10:29, Proverbs 12:10), it is clear that they would not have suffered or died
before sin—in a world that God called “very good” (Genesis 1:31)

Since the
“laws of nature” are descriptions of the way God normally upholds the universe,
it is appropriate to refer to God’s restoration of useable energy as a “law
of nature”—one that is no longer in operation today. Such restoration may have
taken place only in certain places or at certain times. But this article’s proposed
solution to the question of unlimited useable energy is only one possibility.

If indeed God changed the way He upheld the universe at the Curse (and since
the term “laws of nature” is our description of the way God normally upholds
the universe today), then it is appropriate to say that the laws of nature changed
at the Curse. However, this change may have been very slight. There is every
indication that most of the laws of nature (laws of gravity and motion, for
example) were the same before and after the Curse.